August 17th

 

 This show on August 17th, 2017 getting to see Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on their 40th Anniversary Tour play Rogers Arena in Vancouver was so fucking good and sadly one of his last shows before his passing. Opening the show was The Lumineers.

R.I.P. Tom Petty

So yesterday around lunch time I got a text from a buddy asking me if I had heard about Tom Petty, whether what he was reading was true or not. Instantly my mind went to worse case scenario and started looking into it myself, well the rumours were flying that Tom Petty had passed. Instant sadness hit me. Then a few hours later word came out that Tom Petty was still clinging to life after a hear attack and going into a cardiac arrest. So there was still hope, please pull through Mr. Petty. By the time I went to bed I still had not heard anything more.

Well this morning I woke up to the shitty news and confirmation of the passing of Tom Petty at the age of 66. This death hits me hard, it came out of nowhere. I had just seen Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers play Vancouver in August on their 40th Anniversary Tour. Everything seemed so good six weeks ago, a great show, Petty looked to be healthy and in good spirits. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers put on an incredible show. So good!

I count myself very fortunate to have seen Tom Petty in concert four times, and everyone of them shows were awesome. The first time I saw Tom Petty was when a buddy and I made the trip to Pemberton, British Columbia for the inaugural Pemberton Music Festival July 2008 in which Tom was headlining the Saturday night.

The second time I saw Tom Petty play was weeks later on August 12th playing in Edmonton at Rexall Place with Steve Winwood opening. Again, a great show.

The third time seeing Petty play was in Edmonton again at Rexall Place on June 16th 2010 with Joe Cocker opening the show. And now neither one of these artists are with us anymore.

And sadly the last time I got to see Tom Petty play was just this summer and mere six weeks ago or so in Vancouver at Rogers Arena August 17th 2017. This time with The Lumineers opening. I knew Petty wouldn't be doing full on tours anymore after this 40th Anniversary Tour hence why I made the trip to see him again. But I surely didn't think this would be the last time ever. A very sad day this is and has hit me like a tonne of bricks. Very thankful I got to see him perform as many times as I did. Also very thankful for all the great music he has put out over the years with The Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch, Traveling Wilburys and his solo albums. Thank you Tom Petty for the great music and live performances. Your music will live on for many years to come.

Rest In Peace Tom Petty

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Live in Vancouver Aug.17th 2017

The last show I saw in Vancouver was the Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers concert at Rogers Arena, our holiday was based around this one as the band has no Edmonton date on this tour. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers are on the road for the 40th Anniversary Tour with opening act The Lumineers. Went to this show with a great group of friends including my love Janis, friends Shane, his wife Angie, my Brother Citrus as well as Saunta and a friend of hers. Janis and my Bro. had never seen Tom Petty before so we decided to make the trip for this one, and this would be my fourth time seeing Petty in concert.

We made it to Rogers Arena early as a few in our party wanted to see The Lumineers. The Denver, Colorado band The Lumineers can pack an arena themselves, and the place was pretty much full for the opener which is something you don't see often. They did a good job of warming up the crowd. As for me, I can't stand the band, I have tried listening to their albums a few times and they just do nothing for me at all. I didn't enjoy them, but I toughed it out and listened and am still not a fan. Their style of music which is a folk/rock Americana mix has no original sound to them, it's all been done before and better in my opinion. I might have been one of the few who didn't care for them in the crowd. Oh well!

The Lumineers at Rogers Arena.

Now it was time for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. The band opened the show with the song "Rockin' Around (With You)" which is the first song from their 1976 debut album. Then it was into "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and then that's when the arena went up in a haze of blue smoke, even if you weren't one of the people to light up, I'm sure you caught a contact high as the place was smokey as hell. After that song it was "You Don't Know How It Feels" and that had the whole crowd singing along, one of many times during the show that the crowd took over on vocals, very cool to hear and see. What a great way to start the show. It wasn't til after the third song that Tom Petty addressed the crowd.

The whole show was just one great song after another, songs like "Into The Great Wide Open", "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Don't Come Around Here No More". Petty then did a three song set of songs from his Wallflowers album "It's Good To Be King", "Crawling Back To You" and the title song "Wildflowers". The Heartbreakers and Petty sounded amazing through out the whole show as did the Webb Sisters (Charley and Hattie) on backing vocals, with long time guitarist Mike Campbell ripping it up all night. What surprised me was that half the show actually consisted of Tom Petty solo songs, lots of songs from the already mentioned Wallflowers album and the Full Moon Fever album. But then Mike Campbell played on those albums too, so I guess it shouldn't be that much of a surprise as those are quite popular discs. I thought he would play more of the older stuff only doing two songs from his first album the opener and closing out the show with "American Girl". Only one song from Damn The Torpedoes "Refugee" and one from Southern Accents "Don't Come Around Here No More". I thought they might dig deeper into the older stuff with it being a 40th Anniversary Tour but I have no complaints.

This show was absolutely amazing. The sold out crowd were on their feet from start to finish dancing and singing along, next thing you knew the two hour show was over, yet it felt like it had just begun. So much fun, I could have stood and sang along for another hour or two.

It's funny though that during the show I saw four incidents from where I was sitting of scrimmages breaking out and people getting kicked out of the show. Now you would think this would be something you would see at a Metallica show, but nope, this was happening at a Tom Petty concert, kind of weird. To those that got kicked out, you missed out on one hell of a show.

A big shout out to my Brother for scoring the tickets for Janis and I. It was an awesome way to top off our holiday in Vancouver. Good times!!!

Setlist for Vancouver show.

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Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers at Rogers Arena.

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25 Years Ago Today...August 12th

It was twenty-five years ago today that I saw George Thorogood with opener Elvin Bishop play Northlands Coliseum here in Edmonton.

Also on this day, twenty-three years ago, I saw Bob Dylan play the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton.

On the same day twenty-three years ago, I had gone to the Edmonton Folk Fest hoping Dylan might make a surprise appearance, no such luck.

This day has been a good date for shows. As it was twenty years ago today that I saw Pearl Jam with Cadillac Tramps play the Convention Centre here in Edmonton.

And it was on this day five years ago, I saw Tom Petty with Steve Winwood opening at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

22 Years Ago Today...July 26th

It was twenty-two years ago today that I saw the Tragically Hip play at the Convention Centre here in Edmonton.

Also on this day twelve years ago, I saw Reverend Horton Heat with openers Bare Jr. play a place called Suburbs here in Edmonton.

And it was on this day five years ago that I was at day two of the Pemberton Music Festival in Pemberton, British Columbia. Some of the bands I saw on this day were the Flaming Lips, Tragically Hip, Sam Roberts, Black Mountain and headliners Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

24 Years Ago Today...June 16th

It was twenty-four years ago today that I saw Melissa Etheridge play the Convention Centre here in Edmonton.

Also on this day three years ago, I went to two shows in the same evening. First of the night was the Tom Petty and Joe Cocker double bill at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

I had to bail out of the Tom Petty show about half way through in order to make it to the Starlite Room to catch Hank Williams III.